Should we teach Christian values in schools? Do unto others...

Our Alabama public schools should reinforce Christian values. This nation is a democracy, so, if majority really rules, then we should just have a vote on this matter. If most Alabamians identify most closely with Christianity, then why shouldn't schools endorse their faith and spiritual practices?

Certainly, there has been a lot of resistance to this across our nation, especially in the Supreme Court, but here in Alabama we seem to be making strides to perpetuate our faith in public schools. For instance, this February, a bill that would require teachers to start their classes with Christian prayer each day passed through the House Education Policy Committee (Kachmar). At the beginning of the last school year and the one before that, Cullman County Schools were a part of a prayer caravan, despite complaints that the practice inappropriately brought religion into public schools (Gattis). And if my experiences as an Alabama public school student, which ended only last year, are consistent with trends across the state, these are only the most public manifestations of a system that ignores members of minority religions and allows teachers to continue to enforce Protestantism. For instance, many schools continue to neglect sex education and evolution curriculum.

But all of this is fair, right? The Bible teaches us to raise up our children in the faith, so, if we took a vote on it, a majority of us would want the religion we teach our children at home to be upheld in schools. And, for instance, if our state or country happened to be inhabited by a majority of Muslim or Jewish citizens, then we would be okay with our students reciting their prayers and all of our school leaders imploring them to uphold those faiths' values, wouldn't we be?

No, we wouldn't be. In other words, that isn't the way we as a religious community would like to be treated. So, it follows, as Jesus teaches us in the seventh chapter of the Book of Matthew, that we shouldn't treat others that way (The King James Bible, Matt. 7.12). It is not fair, and not in line with our duty as Christians, to force our religious practices on students in our state who are a part of minority religions, just because we're uncomfortable with the fact that they don't share our beliefs.

As education law and policy expert Edward C. Darden wrote in his 2012 legal guide for secondary school principals, "Nearly every religion has a version of the Golden Rule ... Yet, school districts find themselves increasingly confronted by individuals and organizations that use religion aggressively - wielding it like a sword to poke others whose behavior or beliefs fall short of their spiritual standard" (Darden, 68). It is an absolute shame to our religious community to be guilty of this accusation. We cannot ignore imperatives from our own holy book just to bite back at people who aren't like us.

Furthermore, pushing our religion into schools encroaches on dangerous legal ground. We may raise up our own children in our faith and practice our religion, because that is our personal freedom of religious practice granted to us by the First Amendment. However, that same Amendment also denies the government the right to pass "law respecting an establishment of religion." If we demand law that endorses Christianity, we also open the door for endorsement of other religions, too.

I hope that all of my fellow Christians across our state will join me in reconsidering how we expect our personal preferences to be played out in law, and I ask that our neighbors be patient with us as we adjust to a diverse and changing world.

(Elizabeth Self is a Marion County native who just completed her freshman year at Columbia University.)